The present invention relates to an improved corner bead of the type used in the installation and finishing of, for example gypsum board of the like, and more particularly to such a corner bead that is reinforced with a mesh.
Numerous solutions to the problem of providing a flexible, resilient, long lasting and easily installed corner bead have been proposed. Metallic corner bead served as the standard for many years, but often proved difficult to install over irregularly shaped corners because of the relative inflexibility of such materials. The introduction of plastic corner bead materials that could be relatively easily flexed and bent to generally conform to the shape of even the most irregularly shaped walls solved many of the problems inherent with metallic corner bead but introduced yet another problem, namely adhesion of the dry wall mud or other finishing materials to the relatively xe2x80x9cslickxe2x80x9d and non-adherent surfaces of plastics. This problem, in turn, was xe2x80x9csolvedxe2x80x9d by the placement of holes in the plastic corner bead that permitted over-applied finishing materials to hold the plastic corner bead by infiltrating the holes and thus better holding the finishing material to the plastic corner bead. Often however, the finishing material tended to ooze from the holes before drying and resulted in a xe2x80x9cbumpyxe2x80x9d finish that required the application of an additional coating of finishing materials to render the corner surface acceptably smooth prior to application of the final finish coat. Such an additional step was both time consuming and costly in the highly competitive and deadline oriented construction industry.
Thus, a corner bead that provides all of the advantages of flexible/resilient plastic while not having the problems related to finishing material adhesion just described would be of significant value in the construction industry.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an enhanced corner bead that provides excellent adhesion of over-applied finishing materials without the need for additional treatment steps.
According to the present invention, there is provided a flexible and resilient corner bead of the type used in the installation of gypsum, foam and other similar construction board comprising a pair of integral flanges joined by an integrally formed plastic hinge and having adhered to at least one surface thereof, a fiberglass mesh that extends beyond the lateral edges of the flanges of the corner bead. The corner bead of the present invention is supplied in a planar configuration capable of being bent along the hinge to conform to the shape of either a concave or a convex corner.